Hefner Lecture: The Ocean Doctor on "Lessons from the Deep"

10/27/2011

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David E. Guggenheim, "The Ocean Doctor," — marine scientist, ocean explorer, submarine pilot and conservation policy leader — will present "Lessons from the Deep: What the Oceans are Telling Us and Why it Matters" at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, in 102 Benton Hall. His talk is the 37th annual Hefner Lecture at Miami University.

A reception follows the lecture at the Hefner Zoology Museum, 100 Upham Hall. Both events are free and open to the public.

Guggenheim’s multimedia “journey below the surface” will take viewers to Alaska’s Bering Sea and the Gulf of Mexico as he pilots a tiny submersible; to the unexplored waters of Cuba; to the southern Atlantic, including South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited island in the world; and to Gulf communities he is helping to recover from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Guggenheim is president of the nonprofit organization 1planet1ocean, a project of The Ocean Foundation where he serves as Senior Fellow and director of its Cuba Marine Research and Conservation program.

As a senior submarine pilot and scientific adviser, he took part in a Greenpeace-led expedition in 2007 to explore cold-water corals living thousands of feet below Alaska’s Bering Sea. He became the first person to pilot a submarine into the Bering Sea’s two largest canyons: Pribolof Canyon and Zhemchug Canyon, the largest underwater canyon in the world.

Host of “The Ocean Doctor” radio show, Guggenheim plays a key role in public outreach and education about the oceans. He previously served as vice president at The Ocean Conservancy, and was inducted into the National Geographic Explorers Club in 2008.

The Hefner Lecture was established in memory of Robert Hefner, former chair and professor of zoology and founder of the Hefner Zoology Museum. It is sponsored by Miami’s Hefner Zoology Museum and Center for Environmental Education Natural History and Conservation.